Clashes between
police and migrants continued into Monday evening after authorities
moved in earlier in the day to dismantle parts of the refugee camp
known as the Jungle.

The homes of up to
200 people of the approximately 3,500 people living in the camp had
been demolished by the middle of the day, according to a British
refugee aid group, as smoke went up from blazes engulfing makeshift
shelters.

Some homes appeared
to have been set alight by the heat of teargas canisters fired at
crowds by riot police, said a spokeswoman for the British volunteer
group Help Refugees, while some residents seem to have set others on
fire in protest.

Video footage from a
volunteer inside the camp showed residents running away from clouds
of teargas. Reuters said police fired teargas at about 150 people and
activists who threw stones, and at least three shelters were on fire.

The clashes
continued into the evening near a motorway heading to the port of
Calais, where vehicles were blocked by migrants on the stretch of
road overlooking a piece of ground which had previously been part of
the camp.

Strewn with debris,
the port road was eventually taken back by police, who arrested one
person and three members of the No Borders activist group.

The work began in
the early morning, with orange-vested work crews dismantling several
dozen makeshift wood-and-tarpaulin shacks by hand before two diggers
loaded the debris into large trucks. Police in riot gear shielded the
work, and initially there were no reports of unrest beyond a report
of one British activist being arrested.

Reacting to the
demolitions, Amnesty International said that both the French and UK
governments had to live up to responsibilities in relation to those
who were evicted, including facilitating access to asylum proceedings
in France and visas to the UK for those with family members there.

“Although it’s
taking place across the Channel, this is not an issue that the UK can
wash its hand of,” said Amnesty International’s Europe and
central Asia director, John Dalhuisen.

The prefecture of
Calais, which late last week won a court battle allowing demolition
to begin, wants to clear large parts of the southern part of the site
on dune land just west of the town’s busy docks. It adjoins the
road leading to the ferry terminal, a draw for those seeking to
smuggle themselves on to trucks bound for the UK.

Volunteer groups
have warned that moving people from the camp will do little but
disperse many elsewhere around Calais. A UK-based group, the Refugee
Rights Data Project, said that of the 460 residents asked what they
would do if the camp was dismantled, 80% said they would remain in
Calais or move to a more basic refugee encampment in nearby Dunkirk.

The study suggested
authorities’ plans to evict people “is unlikely to provide a
viable solution to the current humanitarian crisis on our doorstep”,
said Marta Welander, the founder of the project.

Of those who lost
their homes on Monday, some had moved into space elsewhere in the
camp, Help Refugees said, while others had been seen carrying
sleeping bags into Calais. “We don’t really know yet what people
will do, but it seems likely some will just be dispersed to other
areas around Calais,” a spokeswoman said.

Clare Moseley, of
Care4Calais, another British volunteer group, said prefecture
officials arrived at the camp at 7am and gave residents an hour’s
notice to leave or face arrest. “The police presence is massive,”
she said. “They have the whole area cordoned off.” French media
reported that about 40 vans of riot police were in position near the
site.

Workmen start to
dismantle a section of the camp. Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

Help Refugees said
some of its volunteers had been blocked on Monday morning from
entering the camp, home to refugees and migrants from countries
including Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Eritrea, Iran, Pakistan and
Egypt.

A spokeswoman said
the demolition began in a section of the camp with a mostly Iranian
population: “People were being told they had to leave,” she said,
“otherwise they would be arrested. A lot of people seemed quite
confused.”

A spokesman for the
Calais prefecture denied there was a vast new clearing operation
under way. He said French officials from asylum agencies and other
state agencies would continue to go from tent to tent to talk to talk
to migrants about their options, as they had done last week.

He said: “There is
a reinforced police presence today to allow those officials to enter
and talk to people. But this is a gradual process which will take
place over several days and weeks. There will be no bulldozers.”

Fabienne Buccio, the
head of the Calais prefecture, said three-quarters of the homes in
the southern part of the camp were now empty after officials
encouraged residents to leave over recent days.

Police were needed,
she said, in case what she described as “extremists” tried to
stop migrants accepting offers of new accommodation or buses to
centres elsewhere in France.

French authorities
said earlier this month they intended to bulldoze half of the main
camp, warning between 800 and 1,000 migrants and refugees to leave a
seven-hectare southern section of the site. Buccio previously told Le
Monde she intended to reduce the size of the camp by about half.

Care4Calais is among
the groups that have opposed the dismantlement plans in the French
courts. A legal appeal against last Thursday’s ruling had been
lodged last week, Moseley said, and was expected to be heard soon.

A Help Refugees
spokeswoman said Monday’s work did appear to be the start of wider
clearance. “That’s what it’s looking like. They did say it’s
going to be slow and respectful, giving people options, and I suppose
they have in a way. But at the same time they’re not giving people
access to information. One person was seen being given their options
as their shelter was being dismantled, so the respect they talked
about last week isn’t really happening.”

While some residents
have moved into shipping container shelters and a small number have
left on state-provided coaches to centres elsewhere in France, many
more than the official estimate of 800 to 1,000 people remained
inside the main camp. A census carried out by two charities recorded
3,455 people living there, with one group telling the Guardian this
week that this included 445 children, of whom 305 were unaccompanied.